Suggested guidelines for teaching The New Baby Big Book story

Suggested guidelines for teaching The New Baby Big Book story Preparation Before the first lesson, make sure that you are completely familiar with the story yourself. The Story There are two stories in this book. The stories are about a brother and sister, Tom and Holly, and their family. Their mother is expecting a baby. The first story is about shopping for the baby. The family - Mum, Dad, Holly, Tom, Grandma and Grandad go shopping to buy some new things for the baby. They buy clothes, blankets, nappies and a large teddy bear. Everyone gives the new things to Dad to carry, but he trips and falls, dropping everything. In the second story, Dad takes Mum to the hospital. Holly and Tom stay at home with Grandma and Grandad. They decide to make a present for the new baby. Grandma shows them how to makes a decoration with a moon and stars hung from a coat hanger. They go to the hospital and find Mum and Dad with the new baby. They show the decoration to the baby. First Session of 30 minutes - Introduction and First Reading Materials Some baby clothes including socks A baby blanket or blankets, nappies and a teddy Talking about the book, the cover and the contents page (10 minutes) Hold up the book and show it to the children. Turn the pages to demonstrate how the book is read, and explain that in English, a book is read in the opposite way to an Arabic book. Hold up the cover. Read the title to the class, pointing to the words as you read using your finger or a pointer. Explain that in English we read from left to right, in the opposite way to Arabic. Read the title again and ask the children to repeat the words after you. Emphasise the /n/ sound and the /b/ sounds and get the children to repeat them after you. Point to the picture on the cover. Ask children what they think the story will be about. Teach baby in English. Fold your arms and move them from side to side to mime rocking a baby. Teach new. Show the children something new that you have, for example, a bag, a pencil and say This is new to make the meaning clear. Find examples of new things that the children have or are wearing e.g. a pencil case, shoes. Ask Is this new? Are these new? Ask questions in Arabic about the picture. Ask children to point to the new baby. Say This is the new baby. Is it a girl or a boy? A girl. Why? Because it is dressed in pink. Point out the other people in the picture. Who are they? The new baby s family. 1

Go round the people in turn. Say This is Mum. This is Dad. This is Holly. This is Tom. Write the names of the people in the picture on the board one by one Mum, Dad, Tom, Holly. Ask children to repeat each name after you. Point to the people in no particular order and ask Who s this? Go round the class asking children Who s this? Get them to answer This is Ahmed, This is Salim, This is Laila. Ask more questions in Arabic about the picture. Are the people happy? Yes. How do you know? Because they are smiling. Point out the family of mice. How many mice are there? Four. Where are they? On the vase of flowers. What are they doing? Looking at the new baby too. What is the mouse in the centre holding? A baby. Open the book at the contents page. Read the title again and encourage the children to say it with you. Ask children questions in Arabic about the picture. Who can you see? Tom and Holly. What are they holding? A teddy. Is it big or small? Big. What colour is it? Blue. Who is it for? The new baby. Ask about the other colours in the picture. What colour is Tom s T-shirt? Red and yellow. What colour is Holly s skirt? Pink and white. Talk about children s own families in Arabic. Ask children if they have any baby brothers or sisters. Encourage them to talk about them. What are their names? How old are they? Can they smile, sit up and walk? What do they eat and drink? Do they cry/sleep a lot? What toys do they have? Reading the story (10 minutes) Turn to page 2 of the book and hold it up. Fold it so that the children can see only page 2, not page 3. Read the title with the children, Shopping for the baby. Point to the words as you read, using your finger or a pointer. Teach Shopping. Do children like shopping? What kinds of things do they like buying? Explain that when the new baby arrives, it will need a lot of things. Ask children what kind of things the new baby will need. Clothes, blankets, nappies, toys. Ask children about the people in the picture. Ask Where are they? In a shop. Ask What is Mum doing? Shopping for the baby. Hold up the clothes you have brought. Teach clothes. Read Mum buys some clothes for the baby. Ask Can you see Holly and Tom? What are they doing? Looking at socks. Teach socks. If you have brought socks to the class, hold them up to make the meaning clear. Point to the people in the background coming into the shop. Say This is Grandma. This is Grandad. Write the names on the board. Emphasise the /g/ sound and get the children to repeat the names after you. Point out the mice in the picture. Tell the children to look out for the mouse family in the story and notice what they are doing. There is a father and mother mouse, a mischievous child mouse and a baby mouse. Ask questions about the mice on page 2. Ask What are they doing? The father and mother mice are looking at clothes for the baby mouse. The child mouse is playing with socks. Turn to page 3 and hold up the picture. Ask children Who can you see in the picture? Mum and Dad, also Grandma and Holly. What is in the parcel? Baby clothes. Teach Can you help me? Yes, I can. Mime situations where you need help e.g you 2

have a lot of books to carry. Ask children Can you help me? and elicit the reply Yes, I can. Divide the class into two and have one half ask the other Can you help me? The other half replies Yes, I can. Ask more questions about the picture. Who is going to carry the clothes? Dad. What are Grandma and Holly doing? Looking at blankets. Hold up the blanket or blankets you have brought in and teach blanket in English. Get the children to repeat it after you. Read the story to page 11. Give the children time to look at the pictures on each page and fold the book so that you are holding up only one page at a time. Before you read page 6, hold up the nappies you have brought in and teach nappies in English. Before you read page 8, hold up the teddy and teach teddy Note about the artwork: The artwork in this story is very important. It helps understanding and generates a lot to talk about with children. Use the artwork to predict what will happen next in the story. For example, on page 3 Grandma is looking at blankets. Ask What is she going to buy? Children can predict She is going to buy some blankets. This is confirmed when you turn over to page 4. On page 5 Grandad is looking at nappies. Ask What is he going to buy? He is going to buy some nappies. On page 7 Tom and Holly are looking at toys. What are they going to buy? They are going to buy a toy. On page 9, what is happening to Dad? He is getting lots of things to carry. What will probably happen? He is going to drop everything. Point out the mouse family in each picture and ask questions in Arabic about their activities. On page 4 they mirror they actions of the people by buying blankets and on page 6 nappies. What is the naughty child mouse doing? Swinging from the blanket (page 6) balancing on top of the balls (page 5) playing with the toys (page 7) swinging from the teddy bear (page 9). If you can, make the story come alive by putting on different voices for the different characters. After reading (10 minutes) Close the book and talk to the children about the story. Ask them if they liked it. Can they tell you what happened? Who were the main characters in the story? Which people bought which things for the baby? Mum clothes. Grandma blankets. Grandad nappies. Holly and Tom a teddy. Ask children if they think the teddy is a good present for the baby. Not really. Why? It s too big. Did Dad buy anything for the baby? No. What did the rest of the family ask him? Can you help me? What did he reply? Yes, I can. What happened in the end? Dad carried everything but then he fell over. What did he ask the rest of the family? Can you help me? What did they reply? Yes, we can. Hold up the clothes, the blankets, the nappies and the teddy again. Say each word in English and ask children to repeat it. Then hold up the things in random order and ask What s this? Read the story to the children again. 3

Second Session of 30 minutes - Second Reading and Development of Language Activities Materials Some baby clothes including socks, a blanket, nappies and a teddy A pan and a fan and if possible, a toy van A selection of the objects shown on page 15 for example, scissors, brush, glue, string, paper, crayons or pencils A coat hanger Reviewing the first part of the story (5 minutes) Without opening the book, ask children if they can remember the title of the story, the characters in the story, and what happened. Hold up the clothes, blankets, nappies and teddy in random order and ask What s this?. Ask children if they can remember the word in English for socks. Can they remember which items each person bought for the baby? Read the story again. Encourage children to join in with you. Reading the rhyme (5 minutes) Hold up the book at page 12. Read the title to the children, pointing to each word as you read with your finger or a pointer, and ask them to repeat it after you. Hold up the pan and fan you have brought in, and teach pan and fan. Emphasise the /p/ sound and the /f/ sounds and get children to repeat the words after you. Read the rhyme on page 12 twice. Open the book at page 13 so that children can see the double spread. Show children the picture of the van, and/or hold up the toy van you have brought in. Teach van, emphasizing the /v/ sound. Read the rhyme on page 12 twice. Read the rhyme again from the beginning and encourage the children to read it with you. Repeat it two or three times. Divide the class into two groups and have one group ask the questions, and the other group answer. Reading the next part of the story (10 minutes) Turn to page 14. Hold up the book and fold it so that children can see only this page. Point to the title and read it, pointing to the words as you read with your finger or a pointer. Ask children to repeat the title after you. Draw pictures of a moon and a star on the board, and write the words underneath, saying each word as you write it. Ask children to repeat the words after you. Talk about the moon and stars. Ask Where are the moon and stars? In the sky. Can we see them during the day or at night? Usually at night (sometimes the moon is visible by day). Does the moon always have the same shape? No. It changes shape. Sometimes it is thin. Sometimes it is round. Write the word hospital on the board. Say it as you write it, and ask the children to repeat it. Explain in Arabic what a hospital is. Ask the children to tell you what they know about hospitals. Ask what sound hospital starts with (/h/).whose name in the story starts with the same sound? Holly. Ask more questions about the picture. Who is in the picture? Grandma, Grandad, Holly and Tom. What is happening? Who do they 4

think is in the car? Mum and Dad. Where is the car going? To hospital. Why? Mum is going to have the baby. Point out the mouse family. What are they doing? Looking at the car too. Hold the book up at page 15. Ask What things can you see on the table? Scissors, glue, crayons, paper, string. Hold up the things you have brought in and say the names in English. Ask the children to repeat the names. Ask more questions in Arabic about the picture. What is Grandma holding up? A picture of a decoration. What do the children think Tom and Holly are going to do now? Make a decoration using the things on the table. Point out the naughty mouse. What is it doing? Climbing down the table using the string. Read The moon and the stars to page 21. Turn the pages slowly and give children time to look at the artwork. Before reading page 16, teach Look and big in English if children do not know these words. Mime the action Look and open your arms wide to mime a shape that is big. Talk about the pictures as you read. Point out the mice in the pictures and ask what they are doing for example, in the picture on page 16, the mouse is trying to cut the paper. Point out that in the picture on page 20, the mice are going to the hospital too. Where are they on page 21? On the vase of flowers. What are they doing? Looking at the new baby. Does Mum like the decoration? Yes. How do you know? Because she is smiling. How does the baby look? Surprised. After reading (10 minutes) Close the book and talk to children about the story. Can they remember what happened? Where did Mum go? Why did she go there? What did the children do after she had gone? Who helped them? What did they need to make the decoration? What is in the decoration? Hold up the things you have brought in scissors, glue etc - and repeat the names of each one with the children. Hold them up again in a different order and see if children can remember the names. Ask individual children to come to the front and draw pictures of a moon and stars on the board. Talk about making things. Have children made anything like the decoration in the story? What other kinds of things do they like to make? Read The Moon and the Stars again. Encourage children to join in with you. Third Session of 30 minutes - Review and Follow-up Activities Reviewing the story (10 minutes) Materials Photocopiable templates of moon and stars, pencils, glue, scissors, coat hangers enough for each group when the class is divided into groups of four children Read the two stories, The New Baby and The Moon and the Stars to the children again. By now they should be very familiar with them. Let them retell the stories with you. 5

Turn to page 22 and hold up the book. Read the title Let s make this to the class, pointing to the words as you read. Read it again. Point out the objects on the page and ask children to repeat the names after you. Hold up the coat hanger you have brought in and teach coat hanger in English. Ask children to repeat it after you. Hold up a selection of the other things paper, scissors, glue etc and ask children to repeat the names. Point to the finished decoration in the picture on page 23. Say that Holly and Tom have made this decoration and now children are going to make it too. Follow-up activities (20 minutes) Choose two or three follow-up activities from the suggestions below. 1. Put the children in groups of four and take them step by step through making the moon and stars decoration. Ask one child in each group to draw a picture of the moon and give the other three children a picture of a star each. Give each group scissors, coloured crayons or pencils, string and a coathanger. Tell children to colour in their moon or star, then cut it out. Show children how to hang their moon and stars from the coat hanger using the string. 2. Ask the children to think of a name for the new baby. Write all the names on the board and have the class vote for the favourite name. 3. Put children into groups of six and get them to act out Shopping for the Baby. 4. Ask children to draw a picture of their own family, or someone in their family. Alternatively, ask them to draw a picture of their favourite toy. Note: If children wish to make their own moon and stars decoration, they can do this individually at home, following the method shown in the book and using cards of different colours to draw the moon and stars on. They can cut out the moon and stars from the cards. They could use glitter to decorate the moon and stars further. Display children s work round the classroom. 6